tips for Climax 81180

[lgbronald]

Being a fan of articulated logging loco's I recently bought an almost mint second hand 81180 (first production series) Climax. Searching the forum I found that there are several issues with smooth running due to the drive train. Improved parts can be bought from the parts shop. Any tip on what exactly I need (preferably the part/cataloque number) is highly appreciated. Also tips on how to install a decoder (I am not a novice with decoder installations) and disassembling are very welcome. Being Dutch, please excuse any improper English

[Waikiki968]

Hi,

George Schreyer's information on the Climax is pretty good.  http://girr.org/girr/tips/tips5/climax_tips.html.  Greg Elmassian also has some tips that might be helpful:  https://elmassian.com/index.php/large-scale-train-main-page/motive-power-mods-aamp-tips/bachmann-motive-power/bachmann-climax

Here is a power pickup modification that's on my to-do list:  https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21AFtY%2DkY7xaq4SN8&cid=B34D25E327BE7D30&id=B34D25E327BE7D30%2134148&parId=B34D25E327BE7D30%2134147&o=OneUp

I think it is important to replace the rear driveshaft (Bachmann part G118X-00U02) if the one on your locomotive is a single piece shaft.  The replacement is a two piece shaft and each piece can spin independently so if one of the drive gear fails that won't break the other one. 

[StanAmes]

For the drive shaft issue.  If the shaft is a solit piece, you can unscrew the part going into the rear truck and grind down the gear so that only the front truck is driving the mechanism.

The other tips on Georges site are excellent.

Stan

[lgbronald]

Hello Guys, thanks for the tips. I found the tips on the websites a bit hard to understand, but hopefully once the loco is delivered and I can lay my hands on it and find out how to remove the trucks everything will become clear.
I ordered a replacement shaft just in case, since they are not -yet- out of stock

[lgbronald]

The climax arrived today and I started to take it apart and ran into the first riddle. After removing the coal bunker, I found a G811x-pcb02 which appears to be totally useless. There are red and black wires connected to a rectifier bridge. The other side of the bridge is connected to a connector labelled con1 with two cut red and black wires. There are also two black wires going straight to a connector labelled con2, to which two cut-off yellow wires are connected. Can I safely remove this board? I desoldered the red and black wires connected to the rectifier bridge and nothing changes, loco runs, firebox flicker, interior light and front or back fireflies glow. BTW how do you open the head/rear light to change the led for some proper bulbs? Picture of pcb could not be uploaded.